


End of All Things

by I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning



Series: The Dark Side of the Force is the One Ring by Another Name [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Post-Destruction of the One Ring, Return of the King, The One Ring and The Dark Side are the Same
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 00:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11279919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning/pseuds/I_Gave_You_Fair_Warning
Summary: Luke had kept his sights on overcoming the darkness that threatened to take over Anakin, threatened to take the entire world.He'd never had a chance to consider what would come after.





	End of All Things

**Author's Note:**

> No, this isn't the big story that I have in the works. I thought I would work on it recently, and it fell flat. Lord of the Rings is my go-to when I'm horribly sick, and apparently the brain doesn't work in these ways when I'm not deathly ill. The big one may have to wait until I'm once again too sick to function. Once again, this arrangement of who the characters are isn't the same as for that bigger story, which is why this is separate, so I can have my cake and eat it too.

 

 

They fled the lava together, embers burning their bare feet as they ran.

Within moments they discovered the motion to be futile. Crawling up a rock projection they watched as the liquid fire took over the mountainside below, cutting off any means of escape.

Yet that wasn't what Anakin was seeing.

Instead he looked to where the Tower should be.

“It's gone,” he breathed, expression somewhere between a smile and grief. “It's done.”

“Yes. It's over now,” Luke agreed.

The last of Anakin's strength gave way, leaving him lying against the overheated stone, eyes closed. “I can see the Shire,” he whispered. “The Brandywine River. Bag End.”

Memories that had been denied to him by the darkness he carried, the darkness that stole him flooded back like a cool breeze against his face. Pale, so broken, he smiled at the char-filled black of the sky.

“Gandalf's fireworks. The lights in the Party Tree.” Anakin's smile was a thing of utter beauty.

His companion didn't feel the relief that the once Fallen one did. Instead, the memories dragged tears down his cheeks.

“Mara Jade dancing,” Luke murmured. “She had ribbons in her hair.”

Hearing his anguish, Anakin rolled his head to the side, dragged his eyelids open.

Luke couldn't meet his gaze. “If ever I was to marry someone, it would have been her. It would have been _her._ ” His words devolved into quiet sobs.

Anakin pulled himself up despite his pain, eased an arm around the other's shoulders, leaned their heads together.

“I'm glad to be with you, Luke Skywalker,” he murmured, as a single tear traced down his nose, “here at the end of all things.”  
Luke reached up to hold his arm, the acrid smoke burning his eyes, closing his throat.

It was getting harder to think, harder to keep his eyes open.

They held one another, closed their eyes, and waited to die.

 

* * *

 

In the end it was Obi-Wan, the wizard who had walked the paths of death and returned, who guided the eagles to the two he'd believed in more than his own soul.

The giant birds gathered the unconscious Hobbits up as tenderly as if Obi-Wan's own arms cradled them.

 

* * *

 

When Anakin's eyes opened, many days later, his gaze fell first on a gently smiling face.

A man he'd thought dead and forever gone, here to greet him.

Obi-Wan stood there, love in his eyes, as Anakin breathed his name.

And then Obi-Wan was laughing, moving to take him in his arms. “I knew you would save us. You brought hope back to a dying world.”

Anakin clung to him, hardly daring to believe this was real.

“I fell,” he admitted, voice broken. “I— I wanted it. I claimed it, I  _betrayed_ your trust, I—”

“You have returned from that darkness,” Obi-Wan whispered, “and your mind is free from its corrupting insanity. All that now remains are the scars we gathered, and the life we've won.”  
Anakin allowed himself to rest there, against Obi-Wan's chest, until the door opened, and Luke peered cautiously inside.

And Anakin knew he'd never have made it back from Mount Doom without him.

He left Obi-Wan's arms to fall into Luke's. And for a long moment they stood there, and it was enough.

 

 

 


End file.
